Tiles with orientable indicia



United States Patent "Ce 3,131,495 TILES WITH ORIENTABLE INDICIA Edwin K. Stodola, 118 Stanton St., Northport, N.Y. Filed July 27, 1960, Set. No. 45,758 1 Claim. (Cl. 48-125) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in tiles used for covering floors, Walls, ceilings, and the like, which are commonly made of ceramic, plastic, rubber, asphalt, or other composition material.

Tiles of this type are usually rectangular in form and are laid in edge-to-edge abutting relation on the surface to be covered, being secured thereto by mastic or other suitable adhesive. In the use of such tiles it is often desirable to introduce either an ornamental or a utilitarian design or some other indicia into the tiled area, such as for example, the ornamental design of a compass rose on a tiled floor, or a direction indicating arrow on a tiled wall. It is desirable also to orient such a design or other indicia relative to the tiled area so that the indicia or design is directionally correctly positioned, as for example, so that the N of a compass rose is directed toward the North, regardless of the geographic arrangement of the room in which the tiled floor is located and regardless of the particular direction in which the tiles are laid on the floor. Similarly, in the use of wall tiles, an arrow pointing to an exit, for example, must be directed toward the exit, regardless of the exit location in the room.

Obviously, the provision of tiles especially marked with indicia to suit countless diiferent situations which may be encountered from the standpoint of orientation would be a virtually impossible and an impractical task, and it is, therefore, the principal object of this invention to provide an indicia carrying tile which may be quickly and easily adjusted prior to installation, so that the indicia thereon are properly oriented in the desired direction. Briefly, this object is attained by the provision of a tile which comprises a body having a rectangular marginal edge and provided with a circular opening to rotatably receive a circular insert which is coplanar with the tile body and has suitable indicia marked thereon, the directional orientation of the indicia being readily adjustable relative to the marginal edge of the tile body by simply rotating the insert in the tile body opening.

It may be noted at this point that the term directional orientation as used herein in reference to the indicia is utilized broadly to designate a particular direction in which the indicia are to be disposed in relation to the tile and in relation to an observer so that the indicia convey a proper significance to the observers mind, regardless of whether such indicia be of the direction indicating variety or merely readable subject matter to be viewed right side up from the observers viewpoint.

With the foregoing object, features and explanations in View and such other objects and features as may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the tile in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view thereof, taken substantially in the plane of the line 2-2 in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view, on an enlarged scale, similar to that shown in FIGURE 2 but illustrating a modified embodiment;

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view, similar to that shown in FIGURE 1 but illustrating different indicia;

FIGURE 5 is a top plan View of another modified embodiment of the invention; and

3,131,495 Patented May 5, 1964 FIGURE 6 is a top plan view of a further modified embodiment.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, particularly to FIGURES 1 and 2, the general reference numeral 10 designates a tile in accordance with the invention, which comprises a relatively thin, fiat tile body 11 having a rectangular marginal edge 12 and provided at the center thereof with a circular opening 13 to rotatably receive a circular tile insert 14. The insert 14 is coplanar with the tile body 11 and is provided with suitable indicia 15 which, in the instance illustrated, is a representation of a compass rose. It will be apparent from the foregoing that when tiles are laid on a floor, for example, the tile 10 may be used not only for ornamental purposes, but also to indicate the points of the compass in relation to the room, the directional orientation of the indicia 15 being readily adjusted in relation to the marginal edge 12 of the tile by simply rotating the insert 14 in the opening 13 and locating the same so that the N of the compass rose is directed toward the North, at the time the tile is placed on the floor. The mastic or other adhesive used to secure the tiles to the floor will then serve to retain the insert 14 in its properly oriented position in the opening 13 when the installation is completed.

A somewhat modified embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGURE 3 wherein the tile body 11a is provided at the edge of the opening 13a with an undercut annular groove 16 to rotatably receive a radially outwardly projecting, annular flange 17 provided on the insert 14a, whereby the tile body and the insert are interlocked to prevent the insert from lifting upwardly from the tile body during as well as after installation.

The tile shown in FIGURE 4 is substantially the same as that in FIGURE 1, with exception that a different form of indicia have been illustrated, in this instance, a direction indicating arrow 18 on the insert 14 coacting with a suitable legend 19 on the tile body 11, it being noted that the insert may be rotated relative to the tile body so that the arrow points either horizontally or in a slanting position to either left or right, as required by the location of the subject matter which the legend 19 designates.

The modified embodiment of the invention shown in FIGURE 5 is a variation of those shown in FIGURES 1 and 4 wherein the tile body designated generally as 21 is composed of a plurality of coplanar, complemental sections 21a ,21b, 210, etc., while the insert 24 is in solid or unitary form, this arrangement being particularly suitable in instances where the area to be covered by the tile assembly is substantially large. A similar arrangement prevails in the further modified embodiment of FIGURE 6, wherein both the tile body 21 and the insert 24 are composed of a plurality of complemental sections 21a, 21b, 210, etc. and 24a, 24b, 24c, etc., respectively, as will be readily apparent.

In the instance of FIGURE 6, the lines of abutment between the insert sections 24a, 24b, 240, etc. may not be in alignment with those between the body sections 21a, 21b, 210, etc., and accordingly, a suitably colored ring 25 may be marked on the marginal edge portion of the insert 24 to render misalignment of the lines of abutment between the respective sections less noticeable when the insert is directionally oriented relative to the tile body so that such lines of abutment are not aligned.

While in the foregoing there have been described and shown the prefer-red embodiments of the invention, various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates. Accordingly, it is not desired to limit the invention to this disclosure and various modifications may be resorted to, such as may lie within the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed as new is:

A tile With orientable indici-a, comprising a plate-like tile body having a marginal edge and upper and lower surfaces, said tile body being provided with a circular opening having its edge spaced inwardly from, the marginal edge of the tile body, said edge of said opening being radially outwardly stepped intermediate the thickness of the tile body whereby the diameter of the opening at the lower surface of the body is greater than at the upper surface thereof to form an annular undercut in the lower surface of the body, a plate-like circular insert rotatably positioned in said opening and having upper and lower surfaces coplanar with the respective upper and lower surfaces of said body, said insert also having .a marginal edge which is stepped radially outwardly intermediate the thickness of the insert whereby the diameter of the insert at the lower surface thereof is greater than at its upper surface to form a radially outwardly projecting annular flange at the lower surface of the insert, said flange of the insert being disposed in said undercut of said opening with the step on the marginal edge of the insert abutting the step in the edge of said opening, said insert being rotatable in said opening about an axis normal to the plane of said body, and directionally oriented indicia provided on the upper surface of said insert, the directional orientation of said indicia relative to the marginal edge of said body being adjustable upon rotation of said insert in said opening.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 747,199 MacRae Dec. 15, =l903 2,715,289 Gale Aug. 16, 1955 2,807,471 Moore Sept. 24, 1957 3,002,309 Snyder Oct. 3, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 497,983 France Mar. 22, 1919 

